On Thursday morning September 4th, 2014 a group of protesters marched through a parking lot at a local Detroit McDonalds. They were shouting slogans and throwing bottles at the drive thru. The Detroit police arrested several of the protestors.The protestors were part of a D15 campaign which consists of both fast food workers and their supporters. The reason for this uproar is the fact that the workers are getting a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour which is below average.President Obama addressed this issue and is working with Congress to raise the national minimum wage. Who wouldn’t want an honest days pay for an honest days work?
The Detroit Police Department knew the right for citizens to assemble and protest. However, it must be understood that there are still laws when it comes to protesting. Citizens engaged in protesting cannot become disorderly, block or disrupt the movement of other citizens or attempt to infringe on the rights of other citizens. There were several citzens who broke this law and in the process got arrested. Some of the protestors however got ticketed instead.
The problem with this story is the fact that if the protesters did not resort to trashing the drive thru by throwing bottles then there would be no arrests. If the police see any acts of violence it is their duty to keep the peace. No force was used during these arrests and all of the protestors were compliant throughout the process. Both sides handled this situation delicately without any injuries. The only disruption was the disorderly conduct of some angry protesters.
SavySo_Vicious • Sep 19, 2014 at 2:27 pm
Sometimes anger is louder than the point we are trying to get across. That was the problem with these protesters, they allowed their anger to get the best of them which ended up in a violent protest. I agree that $7.25 is not nearly enough to survive on, especially living in Northern Virginia, one of the top wealiest counties in the nation. They had all the right motives to proest but not the right attitude. Remember, get your point across not your anger. Peaceful protesting!
TheQueen54 • Sep 19, 2014 at 2:17 pm
Very well written. I strongly agree. I think that $7.25 an hour’s practically considered slavery. McDonalds is a multimillion dollar company. Surely they have enough money to pay off their workers. Hard working people deserve high pay for the vast amount of effort they put in. However, I disagree with you when you say that the forceful riot wasn’t necessary. I believe that it was needed for the protesters to be heard. Truth is, if they were to just stand outside of an executive building holding picket signs their pleas would’ve never made it on the news. It is only through rebellion in which our species has made progress.
“Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost
Monna • Sep 19, 2014 at 11:24 am
I think the workers have rights for Assembly and protest but the way they used it to explain what they want was wrong. I know it is hard to them to get a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour which is below average, but they also resorted to trashing the drive thru by throwing bottles. Which make the police angry and they used the force to stop what the protests did.
PLUR • Sep 18, 2014 at 2:09 pm
Well the idea of protesting was good, but the trashing wasn’t necessary so the police had enough authority and reason to contain the outrage; and since there where no injuries I say that both sides handled it as correctly as possible.
ARALE. • Sep 15, 2014 at 9:34 pm
Nowadays, it is really hard to survive with the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour which is below average. All the prices are increases, but wages are not rising. If the employee only works 40 hours per week for $7.25/h, the employee will earn about $1160 before taxes. It is impossible to feed a whole family with these amount of money.
I you live in the Northern Virginia area, there is no way to pay off the rent.